Saving Hope Season 4 Episode 1 “Sympathy for the Devil” Recap

Welcome back to our Saving Hope recaps now in its 4th season! We have a bit of a time jump, approximately 9 months since we last saw our crew. We get new faces and some out of character behavior but one thing that is back is the central love story of Alex and Charlie so lets start with them.

Alex is in bed and is wide awake, nervous for her first day back at work. Charlie wants to help her relax via sex but baby Luke interrupts their sexy times.

As the pair get ready for work and Alex giving the babysitter instructions, Charlie opens the mail to find Luke’s long form birth certificate, reminding him of the unknown identity of Luke’s paternity.

Alex prepares to say goodbye to her son and says to Luke to say good bye to daddy and we see Luke call Charlie dada. As they go out the door, Charlie tells Alex just to go slow and steady throughout the day.

Unfortunately, Alex’s day doesn’t go that way as she enters the Hope Zion ER on a gurney trying to save the life a young mother involved in a car crash. Naomi is more worried about her baby as she is the only parent her daughter, Felicia, has. Alex tells Naomi that Felicia is with Charlie.

Maggie and Zach welcome her back and assist Alex. One of the new faces, Dr. Patrick Curtis (Max Bennett) arrives to lend a hand and he and Alex butt heads over the best course of action after fluid enters Naomi’s belly. Alex wants to take her to the OR but Curtis wants to take her to imaging and Curtis wins out.

Alex asks Maggie about Curtis, whom she thinks is great. Both women find it odd that Dawn would hire another doctor with an accent and Maggie says that Dawn hired him because she couldn’t wait for Alex to come back from maternity leave. Later on, Naomi does need surgery and Alex asks Dawn to scrub in on Curtis’ surgery; Dawn says she can. Dawn didn’t have a major story line tonight except that she is learning Mandarin.

During Naomi’s surgery, we learn that Curtis is a thorough surgeon and plays by the book and by the rules and doesn’t stray from it. When Curtis has some difficulty in clamping off a leak in Naomi’s aorta, he doesn’t want to pass it to Alex but relents. When Alex does manage to close off Naomi’s aorta, we see that Curtis’ ego is bruised and gets all passive aggressive on Alex.

Meanwhile, Charlie tries to pass Felicia off to Jackson but the baby gets fussy so he takes her to the Joel Goran Fracture Clinic, named of course in memory of Joel Goren who, if you remember, was tragically killed in the season 3 finale. There Shahir hijacks Charlie’s time to try and get him to be part of his Alzheimer’s study that requires an orthopedic surgeon. Shahir wants Charlie to help him present in front of the funding board. However, the presentation is that afternoon so Charlie says no. Shahir is miffed and said that if Joel was still alive, he would have said yes. Before hand, Charlie gets Shahir to take the baby to the doctor’s lounge so a nurse can look after Felicia.

Later, Alex and Charlie meet up where she notes how much Hope Zion has changed since she has been away. Charlie then brings up Luke’s long form birth certificate. Alex realizes that it probably is time to learn who Luke’s father is but didn’t want to burst their little bubble they have been living in. Before any decision can be made, Alex is paged to help perform an awake surgery on a prisoner who was convicted of killing his wife.

Erica Durance as Dr. Alex Reid

The prisoner’s name is Tom Crenshaw (Rookie Blue’s Travis Milne) and during the surgery, Alex gets him to talk about himself so he can relax during iy. Unfortunately, Tom starts to feel the pain of having his guts opened so Alex is forced to do a tracheotomy (Tom can’t be intubated) so he can be under for the surgery. Alex manages to repair the ulcer in his abdomen.

However, we see Tom’s spirit in an orange jumpsuit in the lobby of Hope Zion. Charlie sees him and Tom tells him that he is innocent. Charlie is distracted when he sees Naomi’s spirit looking for Felicia. Charlie leaves Tom and brings Naomi to Felicia. We learn that Naomi adopted Felicia and is worried what will happen to her baby. Charlie says that she will be placed in the system. The nurse looking after Felicia says that the foster system gets a bad rap and tells Charlie that any one that takes on parenting a child whether it is their child or not is a hero in her book. We can see Charlie taking this to heart.

As Shahir goes into his presentation, Charlie agrees to be part of this study after learning that the reason why Shahir is so passionate about the study is that his grandmother was recently diagnosed with the disease. At the funding meeting, Charlie assists in demonstrating the benefits of Shahir’s study and we learn that he got the funding.

Max Bennett as Dr. Patrick Curtis

Later on, Curtis tells Alex that Naomi is going to be okay. When Alex asks if Naomi has seen Felicia, Curtis says no because children aren’t allowed on the ward. However, we see Curtis bring Felicia to Naomi. So Alex’s influence is rubbing off on Curtis so he’s not so by the book after all.

As for Tom, he starts to pull out his breathing tube but there were some complications in trying to calm Tom down that results in Alex having to put him in a medically induced coma. Alex tells Curtis pretty much that this isn’t her first coma rodeo.

Zach and Maggie

Benjamin Ayers as Dr. Zach Miller

Alex notes how Zach has changed, which is into some sort of horn dog. Zach broke up with Melanda 3 months ago and she transferred out of Hope Zion 6 weeks ago. Zach is now dating Selena, a hospital clerk.

Julia Taylor-Ross as Dr. Maggie Lin

Maggie treats Viv, who came into the ER complaining about stomach pain and vomiting. Maggie learns that Viv recently came back from a trip to the Ivory Coast and Zach goes into high alert thinking it is Ebola. Viv went to the Ivory Coast to realize her childhood ream of seeing pigmy hippos before she turned 50. Viv’s boyfriend, Sam, encouraged her to realize her dream but she before she went on the trip, she broke up Sam because he is 18 years younger than her. Even though Sam said the right things that the age gap doesn’t bother him nor that he wants kids, Viv says that Sam doesn’t realize what he wants until he doesn’t have it. Viv thinks she is going to die alone.

Later when Viv starts to have seizures, Maggie and Zach have issues with their protective gear so Zach enters without it and saves Viv. Maggie thinks he has a death wish but Zach says he did what he did to save Viv.

As Viv wakes up we see that Sam has kept vigil outside her isolation room. In Love Actually style Sam has several message written on a card that proclaims that Viv is his future. That romantic gestures really makes Viv hope that she will be okay and she will be. Viv doesn’t Ebola but contracted parasites from the pygmy hippos. We later see Sam and Viv cuddling in her hospital bed.

At the end of their shift, Maggie thanks Zach for a great job and says she misses Joel too and if he wants to talk, she is there. But Zach makes a quip of her hair and leaves. Something tells me these two will get together at some point this season.

Episode End

Alex turns down Maggie’s offer for a drink so she can go home to baby Luke. When Alex gets home, Charlie tells her that he doesn’t care about doing a paternity test. It doesn’t matter who Luke’s father is as long as he is Alex’s. Alex says that Luke is theirs and she loves Charlie even more. Charlie wants to pick up where they left off in the morning but a sleeping Luke wakes up. Charlie goes to take care of Luke, who is looking all cute standing up in his crib. While trying to get Luke to go back to sleep. Tom’s spirit appears in Luke’s room pleading with Charlie to help prove his innocence. Charlie is shocked to see Tom there and wants him to leave but Tom says that since Charlie is a bone doctor that he can help prove the ME lied on the stand. Before Charlie can get a word in edgewise, Alex comes into the room to spend time with her son.

So the spirits are no longer confined to the walls of Hope Zion but now can follow Charlie anywhere. I wonder if Charlie will tell Alex about this since she is aware of Charlie’s gift.

And do you think we will learn the identity of Luke’s father or are you like Charlie and don’t care as long as the three of them are a family. Vote in the poll below and sound off in the comments.

Hi Vanessa, I watched the show and honestly, I was looking forward to read your recap! love to have you back :))
One small note: I know you rush to post the recap but it is very important to check your writing prior to posting, I saw few errors that takes away from such great work. Thanks